The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to bring some flexibility in implementation of its order on mandatory installation of electronic cash register (ECR) in 10 services sector.
The NBR order is scheduled to come into effect from January 1, 2009 in city corporations and July 1, 2009 in district towns.
In a bid to plug holes in VAT evasion the revenue board has made this order for big and middle business houses.
The revenue board will sitin a meeting on July 21 next with the all stakeholders, shop owners and business associations to discuss problems relating installation of ECR within the given time frame.
"There will be no major change in ECR policy. The government will try to facilitate installation and procurement of ECR through discussion with the businessmen," a senior official of revenue board told the FE Tuesday.
The board will try to solve problems, which might occur while implementing the order on ECR at field level, he said.
Some big and medium shops are now using POS (point of sale) system to keep sales data on computer. Those shops might be allowed to continue the use of computerised system incorporating some options as per recommendations of the board, the NBR official said.
All field offices under the Value Added Tax (VAT) department have already submitted work plans identifying problems and remedies relating to implementation of the government's decision on ECR installation.
"We have received work plans from all the field offices, which will help us take necessary measures on the basis of their recommendations," said VAT member Mohammad Alam.
He said the government will adopt flexible policy at the beginning of ECR installation to popularise the system in businesses.
The government will definitely target the shops in posh areas for a survey on implementation of ECR, he said.
Procurement and installation of ECR are not expensive. Big and middle business houses can afford it easily, he added.
"Non-recorded data is one of the major reasons of poor VAT collection from services sector. It could be easily resolved with the installation of ECR. Both businessmen and government exchequer will be benefited with the introduction of the system," he said.
The recorded documents will help the government collect actual revenue and the business owners their real turnover, he added.
Some shops in the capital have been paying nominal monthly VAT at a flat rate of Tk 4,200 while only small shops are entitled to pay the small sales tax, NBR official said.
Shops having only Tk 120 per day turnover are entitled to pay the flat rate of tax. But, a number of those shops have millions of taka worth of sales, they said.
There will be some changes in the category of shops that are paying flat rate of sales tax, they added.
The revenue board has faced strong resistance of businesses after issuance of the order on mandatory installation of ECR by July 1, 2008. Following requests of businesses, the NBR has extended the time for ECR installation.
